“Clearly the rising gender parity of instrumentalists on the bandstand is an inspiration to other women to perform the music, but the question remains open as to whether their presence can equally translate to women in the audience for the music.”
Canada’s Most-Visited Museum Is Struggling. So Why Is It Setting Its Fundraising Goal So Low?
“The Canadian Museum of History has set the bar very low — just $10,000 to be raised over each of the next two years, an apparent recognition that ordinary Canadians aren’t that interested in bailing out hard-pressed public institutions.”
Will The BBC’s Big New Arts Initiative Gain Wide Support?
“Will it meet with a welcoming, needy response from audiences, longing for access to the world of Glyndebourne, the Hay-on-Wye literary festival and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, as well as, say, the Rolling Stones at Glastonbury and the Last Night of the Proms, current fixtures?”
Portugal’s Plan To Sell Cultural Assets Sparks Protests
“The government’s announcement that it would sell the collection through the auction house Christie’s in London set off intense discussion of what kind of assets the state should be allowed to sell, and whether the nation’s cultural heritage is off limits.”
Making Ideas That Make Us Better (It’s Harder Than It Seems)
“Making a device that connects to the Internet of Things is getting increasingly easy, but creating products and services that use technology to transform us into better people is as hard as it’s ever been.”
Report: Fewer Americans Are Going To Movie Theatres
“The number of tickets sold fell nearly 11% between 2004 and 2013, according to the report, while box office revenue increased 17%. With home-entertainment options improving all the time— whether streamed movies and television, video games, or mobile apps—and studios releasing fewer movies, people are less likely to head to their local multiplex.”
What Can SF-MOMA Do While Its Building Is Closed for Three Years?
Tourists are grumbling, schoolteachers are lamenting, and members are choosing not to renew until construction is finished in 2016. The insane San Francisco real estate market means there’s no affordable temporary museum space in the city, so the art in in storage. What to do? Innovate, improvise, and partner.
Can London’s Financial District Turn Into an Arts Hotbed?
“The Barbican and the Museum of London want to create a cultural hub that will be as buzzy as those on the capital’s South Bank and in South Kensington.”
Can Manhattan Be the Center of the Literary Universe When Bookstores Can’t Afford to Be There?
Ever-rising rents have been pushing out independent booksellers for years, but now even Barnes & Noble is getting priced out.
Can the Paul Taylor Dance Company Absorb Other Choreographers’ Works?
Alastair Macaulay: “Mr. Taylor has said he hopes for revivals of works by the dead choreographers Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and José Limón … But the problems of reviving these pieces are immense, especially with casts used to dancing in a Taylor way. The issue of younger choreographers is something else, though.”
How Baz Lurhmann’s ‘Strictly Ballroom’ Was Born (As a Sophomore Student Project)
“A black box stage. A shiny piano-black floor. To the strains of ‘Blue Danube’, eight performers – women in garishly bright dresses, men in elegant black tailcoats – are picked out in the lights. Moving in slow motion, they look like puppets slowly coming to life.”